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Sunday, July 31, 2016

The following schedule updates, include clandestine stations currently active on shortwave radio. To learn more about the fascinating world of mystery and intrigue in clandestine broadcasting, refer to my feature, Voices for Change in the summer edition of International Shortwave Broadcast Guide, available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FV3FL72/
Gayle Van Horn W4GVH

All times UTC
Updated A16 schedule of clandestine broadcast on shortwave radio.

Friday, July 29, 2016

Hello friends,
Last weekend's experiment with the transmission of an html-formatted VOA News
story resulted in many successful decodes, but also several failures. The
failures were mainly due to the base64 compression of the transmitted file,
which requires all of the received characters to be received correctly.
On shortwave, as we know, perfection is often elusive.
This weekend, we will transmit another html-formatted VOA News story. This
time we will use Flwrap, another Fldigi add-on program. See details and
instructions here: http://voaradiogram.net/post/148147415237/experimenting-with-web-pages-via-shortwave
.
Because Flwrap does not require the html to be compressed, if the checksum
fails, you have a Plan B: Copy the text in the Fldigi from through
, paste it to a text editor (like Notepad), save it as an .html
file, and open it in a browser.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 174, 30-31 July 2016,
all in MFSK32 centered on 1500 Hz:

The Mighty KBC will broadcast to North America this weekend for one
hour: Sunday 0000-0100 UTC (Saturday 8-9 pm EDT) on 9925 kHz, via shortwave. A
minute of MFSK32 will be at about 0032 UTC. Reports for KBC reception to Eric:
themightykbc@gmail.com .

DigiDX will provide DX and media news in MFSK32 and possibly
other modes (and they have been experimenting with html/svg content)
:

IBC (Italian Broadcasting
Corporation) has a
broadcast to Europe on 6070 kHz, Wednesdays, 2000-2200 UTC, with MFSK32 and
Olivia 16-500 at 2030-2100 UTC. And IBC has added MFSK32 transmissions
via WRMI in Florida: Friday 0125-0200 UTC on 9955 kHz (Thursday 9:25 pm EDT),
part of its 0100-0130 broadcast. And Saturday at 0155-0200 UTC (Friday evening
9:55 pm EDT), on 11580 kHz, part of its 0130-0200 broadcast. See http://ibcradio.webs.com/ for the complete schedule and contact
information.

Thanks for the many helpful reception reports from last weekend. I have
compiled the gallery for program 172, 16-17 July, and am now responding to
reports from that weekend.

Dayton Hamvention 2017 News Update
The Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) regrets to inform our many vendors, visitors and stakeholders that, unfortunately, HARA has announced the closing of their facility. We have begun execution of our contingency plan to move Hamvention 2017 to a new home. DARA and Hamvention have enjoyed many successful years working together with HARA Arena and we wish the Wampler family the best. DARA and Hamvention have been working on a contingency plan in the event HARA would become unavailable. We have spent many hours over the last fewyears evaluating possible locations and have found one in the area we believe will be a great new home! Due to logistics and timing issues, we will make a formal announcement introducing our new partner. This information will be coming soon. We all believe this new venue will bea spectacular place to hold our beloved event. Please rest assured we will have the event on the same weekend and, since it will be in the region, the current accommodations and outside events already planned for Hamvention 2017 should not be affected.
We look forward to your continued support as we move to a new future with The Dayton Hamvention.
Ron CramerGeneral ChairmanDayton Hamvention 2017

The Australian monthly magazine Radio & Hobbies for October 1975
gives us the first notification that Trans World Radio TWR was planning to
establish a twin broadcasting facility on the island of Guam.The highly honored international radio
monitor in New Zealand, the late Arthur Cushen, stated in his monthly column,
Listening Around the World, that TWR had already received a license for this
new station which would operate with 10 kW on 770 kHz mediumwave and with two
shortwave transmitters at 100 kW for coverage into Asia.

At the time, Trans
World Radio was in an era of expansive growth, and Arthur Cushen went on to
state that this new Guam station would be their fifth radio broadcasting
facility, after Monte Carlo in Europe, Bonaire in the Caribbean, Cyprus in the
Mediterranean, and Swaziland in Africa.At this stage, TWR had already established an office facility in Agana
and they planned that their first unit in Guam would be their new mediumwave
station.

Their new shortwave
station was constructed near the town of Merizo right towards the southern end
of the island of Guam.The actual
location is just a little inland from Bile Bay on the west coast, a Two years later, in June
1977, the new KTWR shortwave station was ready to go on the air with test
transmissions, and at this stage the programming consisted entirely of test
tones and test announcements.Trans
World Radio issued a special QSL card acknowledging these initial transmitter
tests.

Regular program broadcasting began
three months later on September 4 (1977), and by then, two 100 kW Harris
transmitters Model SW100 were in use, with two TCI wide band curtain
antennas.Transmitter KTWR1 was hard wired
to Antenna 1 at 285˚, and KTWR2 was hard wired to Antenna 2 at 315˚.

Three
years later (1980), Trans World Radio received FCC approval for the
installation of two more shortwave transmitters at 100 kW, the same Model
Harris SW100.At the same time, the
transmitter building was enlarged to accommodate the two additional units, and
three new curtain antennas were also installed.Test broadcasts from the two new transmitters and antennas took place
during the following year (1981).

In
April 1999, a fifth transmitter and a sixth curtain antenna were installed;
however, the 100 kW transmitter on this occasion was manufactured by the HCJB
facility located at Elkhart in Indiana.Then give two more years (2001) and the two early curtain antennas were
replaced by two similar units with reflectors.

However
at this stage, two of the early 100 kW transmitters were removed and replaced
by two higher powered units rated at 250 kW each with digital DRM
capability.During the installation of
the new high powered transmitters, there was a rearrangement of transmitter
locations within the building, and the earlier KTWR3 was removed for sale.

Friday
November 11, 2011 was an auspicious day for Trans World Radio KTWR down near
the town of Merizo on the island of Guam.On that date, a special dedication ceremony honored the installation of
the ultra-modern new equipment, and a special quarter hour program in the
digital DRM mode marked the occasion.

This
special shortwave broadcast in the digital mode was broadcast at 0900 UTC on
17640 kHz.The entire dedication
ceremony was broadcast live from KTWR, and in addition, this special event
programming was relayed throughout the United States via the several hundred FM
and mediumwave stations in the nationwide Moody Bible Radio Network.

In
recent time KTWR has been involved in two interesting and significant radio
experiments, in addition to the transmission of shortwave programming in the
digital mode.During the past three
years, Trans World Radio has been installing three huge solar arrays for the
generation of electricity at the rate of 60 kW hours per day from each
array.When totally completed, this cost
saving equipment will save the station around $50,000 for electricity each
year.Then, just last month by special
arrangement, one of the 250 kW transmitters at shortwave KTWR beamed an
experimental digital internet signal to Thailand that allowed the download of a
complete Bible on a smart phone.

Trans
World Radio KTWR on Guam has always been a reliable verifier of listener
reception reports from their office in Agana, and more recently directly from
the station at its Merizo address.Over
the past nearly forty years, KTWR has issued a host of colorful QSL cards, in
English and at times also in Japanese.These QSL cards often depict delightful island scenes in full color.

Solar activity was low on 18-20 and 22 July with multiple C-class flares from Regions 2565 (N04,L=175, class/area Dho/320 on 16 July) and 2567 (N05, L=166, class/area Dki/380 on 21 July). The largest flare during that period was a C4.6 from Region 2567 at 20/2215 UTC.Moderate solar levels were observed on 21 and 24 July with four M-class flares observed from Region 2567. The largest flare during that period was an M2.0 observed at 24/0620 UTC. Activity reached high levels on 23 July with three M-class flares from Region 2567.

The first was an M5.0, which peaked at 23/0211 UTC. The second was an M7.6/2b flare with an associated 310 sfu Tenflare. The final was an M5.5/3b, which peaked 15 minutes later at 23/0531 UTC had accompanying Type II (729 km/s shock velocity) and Type IV radio emissions, as well as a 900 sfu Tenflare. Two CMEs were observed in coronagraph imagery lifting off the west limb at 23/0524 UTC and 23/0548 UTC. Both CMEs were determined to not have an Earth-directed component.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit. However, a slight enhancement to near 1 pfu was observed at 23/0725 UTC due to the flare activity from early on 23 July.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at high levels on 18-19 July, normal levels from 20-23 July, and moderate levels on 24 July.

Geomagnetic field activity reached minor storm levels on 19-20 and 24 July due to the shock arrival of two CMEs. The first shock arrival was likely associated with flare activity on 16 July and wasobserved at the ACE spacecraft at 19/2310 UTC with a speed of approximately 450 km/s. The Bt component increased from near 5 nT to 17 nT and Bz reached a maximum southward deviation of -12 nT. Minor storm levels were observed from 19/2355 until 20/0600 UTC. The second shock enhancement was observed near 24/1450 UTC and likely associated with flare activity on 20 July. Wind speeds increased from near 400 km/s to 470 km/s accompanied by a Bt enhancement from5 nT to 13 nT and southward deflection of Bz to -9 nT for nearly three hours. Minor storm conditions were observed with this event during the 24/1800-2100 UTC synoptic period. Geomagnetic fieldactivity was quiet on 18, 21-23 July with a nominal solar wind.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 25 July - 20 August 2016

Solar activity is expected to be very low to low for the first half of the period with a chance for M-class flares from 05-19 August due to the return of old Region 2567.

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at normal to moderate levels for the majority of the period with high levels from 05-15 August due to recurrent CH HSSevents.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

The Indianapolis Motor
Speedway Amateur Radio Club (W9IMS) will conduct the third of its three 2016
special events, commemorating the Brickyard 400 NASCAR race, starting at
midnight Indianapolis time (0400 UTC) Monday, July 18, and continuing through the
afternoon of Sunday, July 24 (local time).

Amateur radio operators who
work W9IMS qualify for a special QSL card, as do SWLs who submit reception
reports. (The club also awards a certificate, but that requires QSOs during or
reception reports for all three 2016 W9IMS special events, including the Grand
Prix of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis 500 in May.)

Please include a SASE with
all QSL requests, which should be sent to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Amateur Radio Club, P.O. Box 30954, Indianapolis, IN 46230. For additional
information, including a list of scheduled operators, go to www.w9ims.org

W9IMS usually operates on
or near the following frequencies: 7.240, 14.245 and 18.140, and possibly 144.240
SSB and 146.52 simplex FM on the morning of race day, July 24. Check spots on
DX Summit – www.dxsummit.fi
– to find out whether W9IMS is on the air at any given time.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Our July 26 (July 25 in the Americas on WBCQ) program includes more of María Felicia Pérez, director of Coro Exaudi, winner of the Choral Music category in Cubadisco 2016, and we will feature some Cuban Rock by Miel con Limón, winner of the Rock category in Cubadisco this year along with some new charanga by Orquesta Aragon, nominated in Traditional Popular Music this year. We will also play some Timba from the 1990s by Dan Den.

New clandestine station, Eritrea Radio Muhtar/Idhaa-tu Sautiya(or Radio Adal, according to David Kernick via email on Sat July 16):1500-1600 on 15205 ISS*100 kW / 125 deg to EaAf Arabic/Tigrinya Tue/Wed/Sat * according latest changes of Media Broadcast.

Sunday HLR:09.00 to 12.00 UTC on 9485 kHzE-mail: redaktion@hamburger-lokalradio.de Thank you!HLR FM-DAB+ Program via the Internet : www.hamburger-lokalradio.net Daily 24 h
Hobart Radio International: Full Schedule A16: http://www.hriradio.org/p/current-schedule.htmlPlease note we have a new transmission on 15770 commencing this Sunday at 2100UTC via WRMI.Please Email: hriradio@gmail.com Thank you!
For outside the listening area please try the Twente/Netherlands Web RX at http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/
You can also hear many European free and alternative stations via the Internet at: http://laut.fm/jukebox

Italian Broadcasting Corporation, IBC,
has new MFSK32 transmissions. See the information below.

I have not been able to do a character-by-character analysis of all the
reports on last weekend's Battle of the 55-wpm Modes, but it generally appears
to me that MFSKI16 was best, followed by Olivia-8-1000, with BPSK63F most prone
to errors. (In defense of BPSK63F, however, it has the narrowest bandwidth, and
thus will be the most welcome on the amateur bands.)

Roger in Germany reminded us that BPSK63F, because it involves phase
shift keying, may not work as well in AM mode, because, with fading, the two
sidebands can be out of phase. The frequency shift keying of MFSK and Olivia
suffer less from this phenomenon. I decoded the three modes using SSB on various
receivers, but it still seems that BPSK63F had the most errors. Several
listeners and I also decoded BPSK63F in AM mode (and a good signal) with 100%
success.

Meanwhile, the html VOA Radiogram transmission schedule was received
perfectly in many parts of the world, even where the MFSK32 images were fuzzy.
(See some
examples.)

This weekend, VOA Radiogram will again transmit an html document. This time,
instead of using the Flmsg blank form, we will use the Flmsg file transfer form.
When the content is all received, the file transfer window will open. You can
save the document and open it when convenient. (The photo in the document will
come to your PC via the Internet rather than shortwave.) (See instructions at http://voaradiogram.net/post/147385924137/this-weekend-again-web-pages-via-shortwave
)

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 173, 23-24 July 2016,
all in MFSK32, all centered on 1500 Hz:

1:32 Program preview
2:52 New map of
cerebral cortex* 9:21 X-shaped configuration at
center of Milky Way*14:41 US Navy will visit New
Zealand*19:04
Amateur radio numbers decline in Germany*22:17 Kepler telescope discovers
planets (Flmsg html file transfer)27:18 Closing announcements
* with
image**
information about using Flmsg is at http://bit.ly/29Yen0J

The Mighty KBC will broadcast to North America Sunday at 0000-0200 UTC
(Saturday evening 8-10 pm EDT) on 9925 kHz, via Germany. A minute of MFSK32 will
be transmitted at about 0130 UTC. It will be another Flmsg blank form, so an
html item will pop up as a new window on your browser. (The large photo will
come to your PC via the Internet rather than shortwave.) Reports for this KBC
reception to Eric: themightykbc@gmail.com .

DigiDX will provide DX and media news in MFSK32 and possibly
other modes (and they have been experimenting with html/svg content)
:

IBC (Italian Broadcasting
Corporation) has a
broadcast to Europe on 6070 kHz, Wednesdays, 2000-2200 UTC, with MFSK32 and
Olivia 16-500 at 2030-2100 UTC. And IBC has added MFSK32 transmissions
via WRMI in Florida: Friday 0125-0200 UTC on 9955 kHz (Thursday 9:25 pm EDT),
part of its 0100-0130 broadcast. And Saturday at 0155-0200 UTC (Friday evening
9:55 pm EDT), on 11580 kHz, part of its 0130-0200 broadcast. See http://ibcradio.webs.com/ for the complete schedule and contact
information.

Thank you for a large number of
reports from last weekend. There was obviously much interest in the experimental
nature of the program. I will start to compile a gallery of images today and
hope to send them out by the end of the weekend.

I hope you can tune in and write in this weekend.
Kim Andrew Elliott
Producer and Presenter
VOA Radiogramvoaradiogram.net
Twitter: @VOARadiogram